Prince of Wales will wield greater power over the Royal family when part of
his household moves into Buckingham Palace

The Prince of Wales will take the latest significant step in his journey towards becoming king later this month when a key part of his household merges with Buckingham Palace.

The Prince’s 10-man communications team, which is responsible for his public image, will move from Clarence House to the Palace, where one of the Prince’s most senior courtiers is expected to take charge of publicity for all members of the Royal family.

It will be the first time in a generation that all of the Royal family’s image-makers will work from the same office, and will give the Prince significantly more power than he has now.

It is also the clearest indication to date that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are preparing to hand over an ever-increasing amount of their workload to the younger generations.

Courtiers privately concede that the Queen, who will be 88 in April, and the Duke, who will be 93 in June, are on a “gradual downward trajectory” in the number of royal engagements they can carry out.

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The Prince of Wales and other younger members of the Royal family, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, are shouldering more and more public duties as a consequence, and the staff reshuffle is part of a strategy to ensure a smooth transition when Charles eventually succeeds the Queen.

A royal source said: “When you look at the Queen’s diary for the coming year, she isn’t slowing down that much, but other members of the Royal family are certainly picking up other activities.

“The Prince of Wales is increasingly taking on major roles representing the Queen, as he did at the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka last year, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry have a clearer sense of what they want to do, so it makes sense to have everything under one roof.”

For more than 20 years the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and minor members of the Royal family have been represented by a communications team in Buckingham Palace, while the Prince has had an entirely separate media operation based in Clarence House.

Last year the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry showed their own desire for independence by setting up a third media team, based in Kensington Palace, and solely representing their interests.

But later this month Buckingham Palace will announce that the heads of all three communications teams will be based in Buckingham Palace, answerable to one communications chief who will co-ordinate public engagements for the entire Royal family.

Significantly, the woman in overall charge is set to be named as Sally Osman, the Prince of Wales’s current communications secretary.

Although she will report to the Queen’s private secretary Sir Christopher Geidt, Ms Osman, 54, who was hired by the Prince last year, will still be paid by him out of his Duchy of Cornwall income and will retain her role as head of the Prince’s press office.

She has 30 years of media expertise, including a spell at the BBC where she was in charge of its public response during the row over the “sexed-up” Iraq war dossier, and is likely to be given free rein by Sir Christopher, a former soldier and diplomat.

The Queen’s communications team will be headed by James Roscoe, 36, a former diplomat who worked in Downing Street and at the United Nations before he was hired by the Queen at the end of 2012.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry’s media team will continue to be headed by former BBC producer Ed Perkins, 38.

Some junior members of staff will still be based at Clarence House and Kensington Palace, but they are expected to share duties, rather than working only for one member of the Royal family. There are no plans to cut costs by shedding any jobs.

It is hoped the merger will also prevent members of the Royal family competing with each other for coverage in the media when they carry out high-profile engagements on the same day, as often happens now.

“We will have a lot more joined-up planning in the future and will be able to make the best use of resources across the whole of the family,” said one royal aide.